LONDON, 5 July, 2014 − British whaling ships from Tyneside in the north-east of England made 458 trips to the edge of the Arctic ice between 1750 and 1850. Their log books contained detailed records of perilous journeys, whales caught, and the tons of blubber and barrels of oil they brought home.
For Matthew Ayre, a PhD student at the University of Sunderland, UK, and Dennis Wheeler, the university’s Emeritus Professor of Climatology, these log books and other records by merchant ships and Arctic explorers such as Sir John Franklin − who tried in 1845 to navigate the icy North-West Passage between the Atlantic and the Pacific − represent an extraordinary resource.
They give an account of the southern edge of the ice sheet, the prevailing weather, the spring and summer extremes, the storms, and the condition of the Arctic ice shelf.
Planetary climate
And the log books offer a snapshot of conditions in the century before the first systematic use of fossil fuels began subtly to alter the planetary climate.
The catch, of course, is that the log books were composed in the technical language used by the masters of sailing ships more than 200 years ago, augmented by the jargon appropriate to a trade abandoned by the British more than a century ago.
For Ayre, the first great challenge was to compile a systematic sea ice dictionary and translate it into the language used by scientists today. He then validated his data with five weeks on the US Coastguard ice breaker and research vessel, USCGC Healy, exploring the edge of the polar ice at first hand. His study, which is part of the collaborative ARCdoc project, concentrates on the Davis Straits between north America and Greenland, and the north-west Atlantic.
The evidence confirms satellite observations made in the last three decades that the extent of the polar ice was once far greater, and that the Arctic ice is in historic retreat.
Oil painting by John Wood (1798-1849) of British whalers circa 1840 Image: Lee and Juliet Fulger Fund via Wikimedia Commons
“Significantly, this is the first time we have ever had direct observational information on the ice fronts in the north Atlantic and the Davis Straits area before 1900,” Dr Wheeler said. “Until the introduction of satellite information from the 1970s, we didn’t know what the ice was doing.
Just a correction, “cum grano salis” is pig-Latin i.e. the grammatical construction is ‘European’. Next time use the phrase ‘cum salis grano’ or, better still, use the more correct ‘addito salis grano’, even if it is less intuitive.
Uh, Omno? The “him” I had forgotten about was Stan Rogers, not you. Stop translating English into Italian or whatever it is that you do that leads to such confusion. Please post your “music” on Youtube and tell us and I will be sure to check it out.
LMAO You prove my point with this upside down inside out backwards forward nonsense comment.
I will repeat—-Stop translating English into Italian or whatever it is that you do that leads to such confusion, and you ARE confused.
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“And you, to whom adversity has dealt the final blow
With smiling bastards lying to you everywhere you go
Turn to, and put out all your strength of arm and heart and brain
And like the Mary Ellen Carter, rise again.”
Note the prescient reference to omnos in the final verse. No, maurizio, the reference isn’t to “you, to whom adversity…”, nor to the Mary Ellen Carter.
Am I overestimating omnos’ ability to misunderstand anything and everything? I don’t think so.
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Actually, it seems more like you’re misestimating omnos’ ability to overunderstand nothing and everything ar the same time. Time to trot out The Duchess again as an aid to deciphering Omno.
“I quite agree with you,” said the Duchess; “and the moral of that is–‘Be what you would seem to be’–or if you’d like it put more simply–‘Never imagine yourself not to be otherwise than what it might appear to others that what you were or might have been was not otherwise than what you had been would have appeared to them to be otherwise.'”
“I think I should understand that better,” Alice said very politely, “`if I had it written down: but I can’t quite follow it as you say it.”
“That’s nothing to what I could say if I chose,” the Duchess replied, in a pleased tone.
“Pray don’t trouble yourself to say it any longer than that,” said Alice.
(Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Chapter 9)
(and the echo in the room is Maurizio saying “That’s nothing to what I could confusedly misstate if I chose-chose-chose”)
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I can see at least two fools totally ubercretinizing themselves by not understanding when somebody posts an obvious joke. Go on, dig yourself down the same hole again.
Quite an interesting piece of research and translation, and great stirring folk music from Stan Rogers. One correction to the painting and painter, John Wood is not the artist it should read as painted by John Ward, and the painting is “The Northern Whale Fishery – The ‘Swan’ and ‘Isabella'”, oil on canvas, c. 1840, which was auctioned at Christies for $331,936) in 2006 .
“…John Ward, and the painting is “The Northern Whale Fishery – The ‘Swan’ and ‘Isabella’”, oil on canvas, c. 1840…”
Interesting. It has a ‘painted by numbers’ look.
There is a wider scope for gleaning climatic information from ship’s logs going back many centuries. Those who have read Patrick O’Brian and/or studied historical texts will have some idea of the detail which could be recorded, as well as some of the jargon.
Those who have studied the history of the old ‘wooden walls’ to use a popular expression, will appreciate that much climatological information could come from records of building and repair and maintenance whilst e.g. ‘in ordinary’. Richard Endsor in his ‘The Restoration Warship’, detailing the history of the 3rd Rate 70 HMS Lenox will appreciate the descriptions of unseasonal excessive high temperatures which punctuated a period otherwise considered part of the LIA.
More general history, e.g. the 1665-66 Great Plague and Fire of London can provide information on other unseasonable conditions.
These warships being constructed of timber could be a source of much dendrochronological information where records of source are available. One such evaluation is described here:
This 1818 book “The Possibility of Approaching the North Pole Asserted” by Daines Barrington and Mark Beaufoy, (freely available for download) has Barrington’s famous May 19, 1774 reading at the Royal Society cataloguing a number of people who had claimed to have reached very far to the North (page 15 onwards)
Plenty of reports of open ocean at the north Pole too. It’s all information to be taken cum grano salis
You have reports of open ocean at the North Pole 200 years ago? Would you like to document that?
Santa had a flood.
https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20130716201026AA6LnNk
Just a correction, “cum grano salis” is pig-Latin i.e. the grammatical construction is ‘European’. Next time use the phrase ‘cum salis grano’ or, better still, use the more correct ‘addito salis grano’, even if it is less intuitive.
Ignore the blatherings of the Omnofool and instead spend some time on Youtube looking for more Stan Rogers music.
I had forgotten all about him, but he made some great music back in his day. I love the “sea shanty-sea song-Irish ballad” sound of many of his works.
it’s a pity you had forgotten all about me, but wow, never realized you like my music. I shall produce a sea shanty-sea song-Irish ballad at once!
Uh, Omno? The “him” I had forgotten about was Stan Rogers, not you. Stop translating English into Italian or whatever it is that you do that leads to such confusion. Please post your “music” on Youtube and tell us and I will be sure to check it out.
nobody can go wrong underestimating your ability to understand anything
LMAO You prove my point with this upside down inside out backwards forward nonsense comment.
I will repeat—-Stop translating English into Italian or whatever it is that you do that leads to such confusion, and you ARE confused.
“And you, to whom adversity has dealt the final blow
With smiling bastards lying to you everywhere you go
Turn to, and put out all your strength of arm and heart and brain
And like the Mary Ellen Carter, rise again.”
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fT-aEcPgkuA?feature=player_detailpage&w=640&h=360%5D
Note the prescient reference to omnos in the final verse. No, maurizio, the reference isn’t to “you, to whom adversity…”, nor to the Mary Ellen Carter.
Am I overestimating omnos’ ability to misunderstand anything and everything? I don’t think so.
Actually, it seems more like you’re misestimating omnos’ ability to overunderstand nothing and everything ar the same time. Time to trot out The Duchess again as an aid to deciphering Omno.
“I quite agree with you,” said the Duchess; “and the moral of that is–‘Be what you would seem to be’–or if you’d like it put more simply–‘Never imagine yourself not to be otherwise than what it might appear to others that what you were or might have been was not otherwise than what you had been would have appeared to them to be otherwise.'”
“I think I should understand that better,” Alice said very politely, “`if I had it written down: but I can’t quite follow it as you say it.”
“That’s nothing to what I could say if I chose,” the Duchess replied, in a pleased tone.
“Pray don’t trouble yourself to say it any longer than that,” said Alice.
(Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Chapter 9)
(and the echo in the room is Maurizio saying “That’s nothing to what I could confusedly misstate if I chose-chose-chose”)
I can see at least two fools totally ubercretinizing themselves by not understanding when somebody posts an obvious joke. Go on, dig yourself down the same hole again.
Quite an interesting piece of research and translation, and great stirring folk music from Stan Rogers. One correction to the painting and painter, John Wood is not the artist it should read as painted by John Ward, and the painting is “The Northern Whale Fishery – The ‘Swan’ and ‘Isabella'”, oil on canvas, c. 1840, which was auctioned at Christies for $331,936) in 2006 .
“…John Ward, and the painting is “The Northern Whale Fishery – The ‘Swan’ and ‘Isabella’”, oil on canvas, c. 1840…”
Interesting. It has a ‘painted by numbers’ look.
There is a wider scope for gleaning climatic information from ship’s logs going back many centuries. Those who have read Patrick O’Brian and/or studied historical texts will have some idea of the detail which could be recorded, as well as some of the jargon.
One initiative is described here:
Climatologists turn to ship logs, volunteer transcribers for historic Arctic climate data.
Those who have studied the history of the old ‘wooden walls’ to use a popular expression, will appreciate that much climatological information could come from records of building and repair and maintenance whilst e.g. ‘in ordinary’. Richard Endsor in his ‘The Restoration Warship’, detailing the history of the 3rd Rate 70 HMS Lenox will appreciate the descriptions of unseasonal excessive high temperatures which punctuated a period otherwise considered part of the LIA.
More general history, e.g. the 1665-66 Great Plague and Fire of London can provide information on other unseasonable conditions.
These warships being constructed of timber could be a source of much dendrochronological information where records of source are available. One such evaluation is described here:
An Evaluation of Dendrochronology as a Tool for the Interpretation of Historical Shipwrecks.
Take care with that salt omno’ after all you, by being so dry as it is, would risk dehydration.
This 1818 book “The Possibility of Approaching the North Pole Asserted” by Daines Barrington and Mark Beaufoy, (freely available for download) has Barrington’s famous May 19, 1774 reading at the Royal Society cataloguing a number of people who had claimed to have reached very far to the North (page 15 onwards)
https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=rVIQAAAAYAAJ&rdid=book-rVIQAAAAYAAJ&rdot=1
If you ask me, I am very skeptical of those reports too.